According to a report by travel market research firm PhoCusWright mobile devices will account for 25% of all travel and booking orders by 2015.
The report shows the importance of mobile devices on the travel industry. As tablets quickly replace standard computing devices like desktop and laptop computers and smartphones ownership now being the norm, all of the online payment industry is slowly shifting to accommodate mobile devices. Throughout 2013, mobile devices were responsible for 7% of travel and booking orders, with a peak in April where these devices placed 11% of all travel related transactions.
By 2015 within the US it is predicted that mobile devices will place 25% of travel arrangements, bookings and Payments . The EU fared slightly less with a 20% stake. Leading the surge in mobile booking are mobile centric applications and web services such as Airbnb and bookings.com.
Creating a strain on the growth of mobile usage now for travel arrangements are technological setbacks. Lack of available WiFi within a number of hotels, pricey hotspot connections, and lack of mobile coverage when going out of the country has travelers still referring to internet cafes and internet rental services to arrange further travel plans. These issues will need to be addressed in order to see the rate of growth discussed in the report.
Future technologies will also help, especially wearable technologies. Smart-Watches and Smart-Glasses like Google Glass have immense potential with augmented reality location services. TripAdvisor has announced they are currently experimenting with wearables on both Smart-Watches and Google Glass. Yelp right now offers augmented reality through phone cameras, and can make the transition to Smart-Watches and Smart-Glasses fairly easily.
With mobile transactions becoming more dominant in the Ecommerce space, it is not surprising to see all aspects of the payment industry, including travel, gearing towards Mcommerce.
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